Myles+Stedman

14/6/12
 * MYLES STEDMAN**

THE DIRECTOR'S CONCEPT I wanted everybody in a triangle, to represent a kind of unofficial holy trinity, with one person on each corner of the triangle and the person speaking on top of the triangle with a podium. I also wanted to have the completely different people on either side of the triangle, the left and right wings of the spectrum. This of shows a balance between the views in Laramie with some symbolism of the holy trinity triangle, and with Stephen Mead Johnson walking on the lines of the triangle to represent his impartiality and equality. 2. MY SET I didn't want a majorly over-the-top set, as it was not a good idea for bringing things on and off stage, and was not a quality of verbatim theatre. My scene was less to look at and more to listen. So I didn't consider the set all that overly important. One block to stand on and a podium for the speaker was enough to show the audience exactly where to look and give the speaker a sense of importance 3. DRAMATIC FORMS AND PERFORMANCE STYLES I wanted the religious leaders, played by Pete, Tim and Luke to all have notable intentions and know exactly what their beliefs were and their views on Matthew Shepherd and homosexuality. However, Stephen Mead Johnson hasn't fully formed his views and doesn't want to offend anyone. He has very Unitarian qualities and is more "showing" people beliefs than "telling". The religious leaders were very telling in the way they spoke and knew exactly what they wanted others to believe

27/5/12

What are the equivalent towns like Laramie in Australia?

Kalgoorlie, WA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalgoorlie

Hate crime: real or media beat up? I definitely think hate crimes are real. There is obvious evidence, such as that of the violence against Indians in Melbourne and the Cronulla riots in 2005. Media may exaggerate the specific hate, as that is a common factor in the media, but hate crimes are definitely real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Indians_in_Australia_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronulla_riots

16/5/12 Today we performed our new and re-vamped version of scene 1 of RRR. While we have not listened back to it yet, our improvement, as quoted by Ms. Miller and recognized by each other was evident. We all performed better vocally and felt like we knew each other more. While it will require more polishing, we have made a much better effort in our body and vocal acting the second time round. The things we can improve on are what we're doing when we're not speaking. A lot of us don't particularly know what we can do, and some further discussion between ourselves can fix this, whether it be small action that doesn't draw away from the focus of the the speaker, or a still image.

13/5/12

We found Run Rabbit Run quite hard to perform, for a number of reasons. We were very indecisive about how we wanted to stage the piece. We continually tossed up whether we should act out the piece normally, or whether we should monologue our parts individually. We eventually decided that we should angle it more towards a monologue, however, we would make strong choices regarding certain lines/areas of the piece, so the audience wasn't as bored, but not so much the audience lost focus on what was truly important-the script.

Another difficult aspect to come to grips with was the muliple roles. We had trouble (which interlocked with our ability to "perform" the roles) with making sure the audience could distinguish between which characters were being represented on stage. To get past this, complete body language and voice control would be necessary. These were the problems we encountered during the first scene of RRR.

1/12/11

I felt that I never truly reached my full potential as Bev, and I don't know wether it was because I didn't like the character that much or what, but I never did my best while acting Bev. As hard as I tried I just never seemed to get her character, which disappointed me. Today, the whole group (with the exception of Luke) did very poor, and I know that we were all disappointed in ourselves, especially me. We didn't perform as well as we had before. I think we will perform much tomorrow.

= Act 3 Scene 3 =

//Character//: Bev

 * === **Line** === || === Objective === || === **Action** === ||
 * (Brian): Talking to yourself, spinning around and around, you're getting weird Lewis ||  || Laughs at Lewis ||
 * (Lewis): Just piss off, I don't want you anywhere near here ||  || (Shocked at Lewis pushing Brian) ||
 * You can't push him around! || To get stop a fight from breaking out || Puts her hand in between Brian and Lewis to separate them ||
 * He's my friend || " " " " " " " " || " " " " " " " " " " ||
 * So what? What about you and Dulcie? || To get Lewis to empathize/to see from her point of view or to prove a point to Lewis ||  ||
 * (Lewis punches him [Brian] to the ground) ||  || (Be very shocked) ||
 * Brian: I'm going to belt the shit out of you || To stop the fight from happening || Get in between Brian and Lewis and physically force Brian from hitting Lewis ||
 * Don't. Go home, I'll deal with him || To get Brian to go home and hopefully forgive and forget. However, Dulcie questions herself to how well this will work || Staying in between Brian and Lewis ||
 * Home! I'll see you tomorrow || " " " " " " " " " " " " " " || " " " " " " ||
 * You think other people are looney, but wake up to saucers and they're not real. They don't exist. || Inform Lewis that aliens aren't real. || Bev is still angry with Lewis ||
 * Are you going to tell mum about me and Brian? || Get Lewis to keep her and Brian's relationship from mum || Look Lewis in the eyes, be gentle with Lewis (complete change in mood) ||
 * Thanks. You're all right for a brother (hug Lewis) || Thank Lewis for his kindness towards her || Hug Lewis as a thank you ||
 * Because I love him! It was the only way to get his attention! || To inform || Annoyed that Lewis does not understand her or how she feels about Brian ||


 * Maccas trip evaluation**

All in all my Maccas trip was fairly successful. However, while I was up there I didn't know exactly how well I was performing. I thought that "well, I am being pretty Ben Cousins-y, and I was pretty engrossed in the moment, I should be doing fine". My confidence raised a bit more when Mr. Duhigg interacted with me, and I gave pretty good, consistent answers.

When I was up there, I knew I was in the moment and doing well, because I was acting different to how I would normally act at Maccas. I was speaking an interacting differently with people, I was eating different foods, I was actually sitting down in the restaurant and eating my food, and I was reading a newspaper. I did not feel like Myles Stedman at all. I did thing that I embodied the character quite well. However, what did send me into a bit of a spin was when Joss (John Lennon) came and sat in my booth. I tried to think on my feet about what Ben would do if he were in the situation of someone coming and sitting in his booth and interacting with him. I decided to go with the thing that felt most natural, and eventually moved away from him.

23-11-11

Today, due to limited numbers, we teamed up and subbed in for each other as characters. However, today we sped up our performances. I found this quite difficult as I found it much harder to act properly when I was trying to do things 100 miles per hour. However, the benefits I did see in this exercise (and while it probably may have benefited characters such as Brian and Lewis more) was the intensity that I actually have to perform with. Up until today, I virtually realized that I had been giving my performances only 50-60%, and I could give more. This has shown me the kind of intensity that I will need to put into further drama, such as further Summer of the Aliens extracts and even the Maccas trip. While Ben is not a very "intense" character, per say, there will definitely be a certain level of intensity that I will need to maintain at Maccas. I will need to stay in the character the entire time I am there. These are good and valuable lessons learned only a few days before the Maccas trip.

18/11/11

Goals in bold

On Friday we kept working on act 3, scene 3. In this scene, Dulcie is again trying to catch Lewis' attention, this time by dressing as a boy, as she thinks (and voices later on in the scene) that she thinks that Lewis is more comftable around boys rather than girls. Her objective in this scene is again to **catch Lewis' attention** to move on to another step in completing her super-objective which is to get Lewis to like her. However, Lewis, as usual, seems disinterested in Dulcie ("I just want to **look for UFOs**) and seems somewhat frustrated at her. This however, can also be attributed to his best friend Brian having sex with his sister, Bev (my character) in a nearby ditch.

Bev is not on for very long in the scene and only says a few lines, however as I see it, Bev is a critical character in the scene. Bev enters with Brian and Lewis and Brian fight. This is, as Mr. Duhigg talked about "difficult business", as, for a girl, this is an uneasy bit of action to deal with. However, I do have Bev intervening and coming between the boys and saying to Lewis "you can't hit him". She eventually gets rid of Brian, saying "I'll see you tomorrow".

Bev then tells Lewis that he is immature and should grow up because "UFOs don't exist". Her goals for this bit of action become quite clear when she asks her brother "are you going to tell Mum about Brian and I". This is an important line in the scene, if not the most important and certainly my most important as Bev has to convince Lewis to not tell Mum about Brian and Bev's sex. Mr. Duhigg explained the many ways and how important it is for me to wholly convince Lewis and believe myself that I have to convince Lewis, like this is a life or death situation. Lewis agrees not to tell mum, and Bev exits. While I do not have very long on stage, you can see through this that I have to have my goals clearly defined from when I step on stage to when I step off.

Characterization-Taking it further -2 combinations of 4 will be assigned Act 3, Scene 3. You will be assigned to either Brian, Lewis, Duclie or Bev. You are to rehearse and perform the scene, except this time: 1. You will summarize the journey of the character for the whole play (super objective) 2. In rehearsal, you will run through focusing on a major goal each time, swap characters, change entrances/exits, perform it in the value opposite to the scene (e.g. Hate-love), eat and drink though the scene and perform drills that focus on different "business" in the scene.

9/11/11-Brian's objectives

-To try to avoid talking to Beatrice -To get Beatrice to antagonize a snake -To punish Beatrice -To go down to the rifle range with Lewis -To get Beatrice to shut up

2/11/11

In one short scene of 'On the Waterfront', there are many things happening that are not exactly visible on the surface; many subtexts. While there is only simple action, and not exactly award-winning dialogue, there is much more to th scene. It starts out with Terry (Marlon Brando) and Edie (Eva Marie Saint) talking, as they are approached by a bum. The bum claims knowledge of Edie and her dead brother, Joey. Edie wishes **to hear what the bum has to say**. However, Terry, for one reason or another, wants **to get rid of the bum.**, probably so him and Edie can continue talking. It takes some effort for Terry to actually get rid of the bum. After telling him, he then resorts to physical force, which also doesn't work. He then throws money at the bum, which seems to work, and the bum leaves. Edie then questions what the bum was taking about in regards to her brother. Terry tells her to ignore the bum, saying that he was "probably drunk". They keep talking, and after a while, Edie, who is feeling visibly awkward and nervous about the conversation, says she should probably get home, because she wants **to get out of there**. Terry wants **to keep taking to Edie**, and suggests that he will walk her home, to which she declines. Terry them confronts her with a question "you don't remember me, do you?", to which Edie replies "I rememberd you from when I first saw you." Terry then cracks a joke, to which Edie laughs at. After some more banter, Terry asks Edie to see her again, which Edie replies with "why?". Terry, obviously disappointed with her answer, replies "I don't know", and after a pause, he accepts her intended rejection, and walks off, beckoning her to follow him home to her place.


 * Super-objectives**

Terry: To chat with Edie and get her to like him, on one level or another Edie: To get out of the awkward situation she's presented with, and not run into Terry much more in the future

31/10/11

Mr. Duhigg- //Ben Cousins is a good choice, but I think you need to go deeper. What made him such an addictive personality and how is this related to his ability as a footballer. Have you seen the doco about him? There might also be some good stuff on Youtube. On the right track, but more, please//

From the research I have undertaken, I think Ben's rise to fame in the footballing and media worlds, along with the public eye, have all contributed to make Ben a household name, are all linked. Ben Cousins' rise to fame started from his debut in 1996. He won the rising star award for that year, which is essentially a rookie of the year award. In 1998, the Herald Sun ran an article on him, making him out to be a s**ex symbol, and "football's answer to Brad Pitt".** I think this is essentially where the Ben Cousins story started. At this time, Ben was around 18, **and already one of the most popular footballers in Australia.** This is an incredible amount of pressure for such a young man to undertake. He was pursued by many sponsors. For some people, this wasn't about how good Ben was at football, this was about how much money they could make off him, and how well they could market him.

Ben was named captain in 2002, but **resigned from captaincy in 2006 after he fled a booze bus.** This is the first major problem Ben had during his footy career. Despite signing a new three-year deal, he was suspended indefinitely from the club in March 2007 after missing training sessions. **It was later reported the Ben had a substance abuse problem.** He attended rehabilitation in Malibu, California. This kind of pressure on anyone, especially one of the AFL's highest profile players is damaging, especially to the person's reputation. It was then that Ben started to spiral downwards.

In December 2006, Ben passed out in front of Melbourne's Crown Casino.

In October 2007, Ben was **sacked by the West Coast Eagles** after being **arrested for drug possession.** He was later banned by the AFL for 12 months for "bringing the game into disrepute". This, I think, is when Ben's AFL career as I know it, ended. No company would be looking to get Ben to advertise anything anymore. No AFL club would want Ben on their list. The unforgiving Australian public was now firmly pitted against Cousins, who was once every Australian girl's pin-up boy.

When Ben was cleared to play AFL football again, in 2009, his conditions were that he was to attend drug testing regularly, including urine testing and hair testing. Ben subsequently shaved his head to make a point about his conditions. This shows Ben's thoughts towards the AFL's policies. Despite teams such as Collingwood, St. Kilda and Brisbane showing interest in Cousins for the 2009 season, no team signed him in the National Draft. Richmomd, however, drafted him in the Pre-Season Draft. In August 2010, Cousins announced his retirement. In the particular media conference, Cousins announced his regret for the situation he has put his family in. This shows Ben's great respect for his family.

To answer Mr. Duhigg's questions: As forementioed, Ben was the whole package: he was good looking, he was a very good footballer, he was a good leader, and he's a nice bloke. This is what made him an addictive personality and what made people like him. Down the bottom here I am trying to get a few videos up in widgets media type="youtube" key="wHFKTjJNhfc" height="283" width="378" This is Ben being interviewed on the Footy Show in 2008 by footballing legend Gary Lyon on his life during his year off AFL, and what his thoughts on playing footy again are. I am astounded at how well Ben carries himself after being under public scrutiny for so long.

media type="youtube" key="hiWMW4wpilY?version=3" height="315" width="560"

Just a short bit of Ben Cousins magic in his playing days. These kind of plays were normal for him. Demonstrates what talent he had.

Character profile-Ben Cousins-29/10/11

NAME: Ben's name is not significant in any way, however, the name Benjamin means "favourite son". His ethnicity is Australian. ADDRESS: Obviously I do not know Ben's address. He may live in Melborune, VIC DATE OF BIRTH: 30/6/1978. This makes Ben from generation X, and makes him a Leo. This year Leo was set to have a good year. RELATIONSHIPS: Ben is one of the four children of Stephanie and Bryan Cousins. Bryan was also an Australian Rules footballer who played for Geelong. I think Ben has a girlfriend, Maylea Tinecheff. During his AFL career and drug rehabilitation, his parents were very supportive and were by his side every step of the way. This indicates that Ben and his parents have a good relationship. Ben's sibblings are named Matthew, Sophie and Melanie. GOOD HABITS: Ben is committed to keeping fit after football, especially due to his former drug addiction BAD HABITS: Obviously drugs are one of Ben's bad habits. This includes alcohol. LIKES: Ben obviously likes football, and wants to stay involved in coaching roles with the game. Ben also likes to tell jokes. DISLIKES: Ben hates the media, mainly because of everything they've done to him in his life 5 ITEMS YOUR CHARACTER WOULD TAKE TO A DESERTED ISLAND: Mobile phone, beer, wallet, earphones, maybe a good book SUPER-OBJECTIVE: To grab a bite to eat at Maccas and get out without anyone recognizing him

Ben Cousins' visit to the airport-27/10/11 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Cousins

Today our characters visited the airport. While I could not have much in the way of a costume, I decided it would be a good idea to bring my sunglasses, as Ben is a frequent warer. I also decided to bring an AFL magazine to give Ben something to occupy himself at the airport. Ben is a very introverted person in public, and after all his 'unpleasentness', likes to keep out of the public eye, especially around Melbourne and Perth. Sydney and London would be to great places for Ben to keep a low profile. I very much found myself making my objectives up as I was talking to Mr. Duhigg. I think some greater dwelling on Ben's objectives will be key for me to do well in the Maccas journey.

While I was not to sure how well I was doing during the performance, I remembered to refrain from looking at the marker, as I had done so much in previous years. I thought it best to keep immersed in Ben's persona and make of what was happening. At the end, Mr. Duhigg revealed that I was one of the few who understood the exercise fully, which was encouraging. He did however mention that if I was to improve, I should avoid telling such random strangers about my past. Overall, I was fairly happy with my job today. Perhaps the lifeless subtlety I performed with today is the key to the exercise, and the key to Ben's personality.

Objectives for Brian-Act One, Scene 7-26/10/11

-To kill the bull ants with his magnifying glass -Brian wants to feel Dulcie's tits-perhaps because he likes her-perhaps there is a deeper meaning, perhaps because he likes her -Brian wants to get as much out of Dulcie as he can get. He asks her 'for a root' -Brian wants to hurt Duclie by burning her hand with the magnifying glass. He has fairly shallow objectives and just wants to annoy her and haggle her

Why is voice important?

If a piece uses voice, which most do, it usually becomes one of the most important elements in the scene. If the audience cannot hear what the actors are saying, how are they meant to make anything of the play? An actor always needs a well-trained voice

Emotion memory p. 41, how does it work in acting? Objectives/obstacles

Emotion memory was highly used by Stanislavski in his theatre. It helps actors know exactly how to feel in a scene, even if they have never been in the situations before. An actor will probably never have killed someone before, however, they will use emotion memory to try and remember a particularly frightening or sad part of their life so they can have some indication of what it may have felt like

19/10/11

Act 1, Scene 1

What are the given circumstances? Refer to detail from the text

-When is it set? What decade? Time of year? How does this affect the characters? -Where is it set? How does the physical environment effect the characters? -Personal circumstances of the characters

-The play is set in 1962. Obviously it is in the 60s. As the title refers to, it is in the 'summer'. This effects the characters beliefs, as they react to current happenings. -The play is set in Australia, in a small, poor town. The physical landscape of the town is very rural, as it is a county town. Obviously, the children of the town will need to amuse themselves in many different ways to how people living in the city may. -Lewis is a young child living in the town, who is fairly normal in his lifestyle. Dulcie is slightly different, as we find out through Mr. Pisano that she comes from a single parent family, after he dad took off. Mr. Pisano is a mailman who is subject to the many dangers of this town, as we find out that he has had his bike stolen. He is a fairly average character in the town

20/10/11

Dulce's given circumstances

-Dulcie is 14 years of age living on the outskirts of Melbourne in a housing comission estate in the early 60s, in Singapore St. -Dulcie has a good friend named Lewis with whom she spends much of her time with -Duclie is quite a tough and rough character, a bit of a tomboy, however, it seems she may have a crush on Lewis

Dulcie's objectives

-To get Lewis to peel off her sunburn -To get Lewis to peel off her sunburn CAREFULLY -To get Lewis to stop talking and concentrate -To engage in time-filing and mean conversation -To engage in conversation -To stop Lewis -To get Lewis to fight her -To gather brass casings Solid. Not asking your fave bballer is :') Solid. Not asking your fave bballer is :')